REVIEWED BY: Christie

TITLE: Brush With Catastrophe

SERIES: The Aloysius Tales, book 2

AUTHOR: Tara Lain

PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press

LENGTH: Pages

RELEASE DATE: April 14, 2017

BLURB:

Sammy Raphael is a crappy witch, and on top of that, he can’t seem to get a boyfriend. Where other supernaturals can bring down lightning and manifest wealth, Sammy can paint. Granted, the “prophetic” paintings he creates at night always come true, but they never predict anything important. Sammy feels like a total loser with a worthless ability.

One night he paints a gorgeous guy who turns out to be his secret crush, the human Ryder, but Ryder’s changed so much he’s almost unrecognizably beautiful. Then Sammy paints an angel who turns out to be a witch. But is that witch also a devil—a devil who can bring down Sammy’s whole community and everyone he loves? And why the hell does Ryder keep changing? Aloysius, the black cat familiar, always backs a winner. So why is he backing Sammy?

REVIEW:

If you have read some of my reviews in the past, you may know that Tara Lain is on my immediate buy list. And, even tho I got this book without even reading the blurb, I quite enjoyed the story and hope you do just as much as me.

Sammy is a witch (well, a semi defective one, but a witch all the same) and an art student at college whose “talent” is prophetic paintings that are created at night while he is essentially unconscious. These paintings don’t predict anything substantial, (just what someone looks like or a location where he will see someone) and this makes Sammy feel a lot like a loser. Making matters worse is the fact that he can’t seem to get a boyfriend. He even has people asking him out just so they can get the inside scoop on whether his more attractive friends are single or not. Isn’t that the proverbial kick in the pants? But, I digress…

Anyhoo, one morning, Sammy wakes up to see that he has unconsciously created a prophetic painting. The man in the painting is beautiful, but somehow familiar. Turns out that the man in the painting is none other than Ryder, his secret crush, who seems to have experienced a massive growth spurt and gotten even more beautiful since the last time they saw each other. Which I suppose is not entirely abnormal for men in their 20’s. The problem here is that Sammy believes Ryder is straight.

Later, Sammy wakes up to another prophetic painting. This time, of an angelic man who is stunningly beautiful, tastes like strawberries, and is very much an enigma. Could this angelic man actually be a devil in disguise? Well, one thing’s for sure, Sammy really should trust the cat familiar, Aloysius, who seemed to have temporarily adopted him recently.

I seem to be saying this with just about every book review I do lately, (which is not necessarily a bad thing at all) do get this book!! It is a fast read that I simply could not put down. A Brush With Catastrophe is book 2 in The Aloysius Tales series, but can be read as a standalone, so don’t worry if you have not yet read Spell Cat (book 1 in the series). Tho, I highly encourage you to eventually get and read that book as well, since it is also fantastic. Tara Lain, you have another winner on your hands with A Brush With Catastrophe. Well done!!

RATING:

BUY LINKS:

Amazon

Dreamspinner Press